Thread: Photos Of Saturn & Her Rings & Moons By Cassini

What a success story for Cassini and NASA. Some of these photos are simply incredible. Enjoy! (30 images total)

Image 1 - Saturn's largest moon Titan (3,200 miles in diameter) eclipsing Tethys (660 miles in diameter). Note the huge crater on Tethys called the Odysseus Crater. (Titan's diameter is about 50% greater than that of Earth's Moon.)

Image 2 - The tiny moon Mimas (246 miles in diameter) with a backdrop of Saturn's upper atmosphere.

Image 3 - Mimas from about 43,500 miles. Note the huge Herschel Crater (80 miles wide). Saturn's upper atmosphere is in the background.

Image 4 - A closer view of Herschel Crater taken from 5,900 miles. I find it interesting that many large impact craters have a central peak that is created when the surface material rebounds after the impact.

Image 5 - Another tiny moon of Saturn called Calypso (an irreguarly-shaped satellite that measures roughly 18.6 miles X 14.25 miles X 8.7 miles). Calypso and another tiny moon (together called Trojan moons) both travel in the same orbit as Tethys (one leading, one trailing). This image was taken from a distance of 13,000 miles. Note the lack of intense cratering found on Saturn's other moons. (My theory is that Calypso is a hunk of space debris that was captured by Saturn's gravitational forces and became a satellite.)

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Image 6 - A natural color image of Saturn and her rings taken from a distance of 1.7 million miles. The image was taken a month after Saturn's equinox so the shadow cast onto Saturn by the rings is very narrow. The small dot below the rings is Mimas. (Mimas obviously does not revolve around Saturn in the same plane as the rings.)

Image 7 - Saturn's moon Enceladus (310 miles in diameter) taken from 125,000 miles.

Image 8 - Cryovolcanic activity at the south pole of Enceladus. Plumes of ice are erupting from Enceladus much like lave erupts from a volcano. Cassini discovered the first evidence of cryovolcanic activity on Enceladus about 5 years ago. This image was taken from the night side of Enceladus so the plumes of ice are backlit by the sun. This image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles.

Image 9 - Another view of plumes of ice on Enceladus. With low gravitational forces much of the ice escapes from Enceladus into space.

Image 10 - Cassini took this image of the icy surface of Enceladus (on the daylit side) from a distance of only 1,260 miles.

I will post more images tomorrow.

Hi ALL &

Wait - isn't that a footprint (#4 - lower left corner) ???

Wowee !


CHEERS, All !

Wow! Even better than my Tscope and the neighbor down the street with his 'light pollution'!! but don't get me started on that, grrrrrr
Bob Smit, County EI

Seeing moon craters using my Celestron 5" reflector is cool but what really impressed and amazed me was actually seeing Saturns rings with amateur equipment.

I make it a point to try and catch the full moon rising over the horizon when it is orange every month.

Most of us pass our lives only seeing this a few times.

A better experience than drinking Colt 45 malt liquor.
(only old folks will appreciate this old advert punch line)